Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2020/21

    After the decision of the conference of the 16 health ministers of the states of Germany and enforced by the statement of the federal German health minister, the soccer arenas will not have any spectators until end of October 2020 at least. Because the other teamsports like volleyball have an even more grave issue due to their indoor mode, we can be sure, that this will hold also for volleyball in Germany until than.


    IMHO there is no realistic chance, that this will change until the end of the year (in light of at last increased infections with COVID19) and even the possibility, that the season ends in empty halls is a rather likely - even in best case it seems impossible, to vaccinate/inoculate the Germans sufficiently until the end of the season.

    Quote from lujie

    Holly Toliver rumored to replace Fitzmorris in Dresden.

    Holly said me on Insta that she hear that Dresden are interested but the news is wrong.


    Sportbuzzer wrote that Dresden will sign Naya Crittenden

    Supercup: it will be played on 27. September not at centralized location with big hall like the last years, but at cup winners Dresden Margon Arena (against picked, not qualified opponent Schwerin). They hope to get some spectators in the 3.000 seats hall, but in light of recent developments here in Germany I doubt heavily, that the health authorities will admit spectators than at all.

    Tonight at 7 pm Stuttgart will play a friendly match against Sm'Aesch Pfeffingen. There will be a live stream at Facebook:thumbup:


    https://www.facebook.com/21143…8/posts/3447103508687756/

    Schwerin has managed to get consent from local authorities to play in Schwerin Sports and Congress Hall as host in case verdict of CEV declares Palmberg Arena as unqualified to serve as a hosting hall.

    Plus they are going to travel to Poland to play a couple of friendly matches with POLICE after a few more training sessions.

    Quote from StefanS

    There will be no spectators admitted, in case somebody should be surprised (?).

    For the limited time Stuttgarts team is together, it was a positive presentation, even after changing most players after two of the four sets. Despite Pfeffingen, which is exercising together just one week, was not really up to the task, they resisted sufficiently to make it not too easy for Stuttgart. Anyway, Stuttgart won all four sets, the first two in assumed preferred players setup more easy than the last two.


    Starting six Stuttgart in the first two sets: Rivers (Opp), Grozer+Mlejnková (OHs), Todorova+Rosenthal (middles), Kästner (setter), Koskelo (libero).


    The middles were changed every set, i.e. for each set one other of those three paused, therefore Lohuis was also on court. Todorova performed very much to the like of our sports director Renkema, she is fast-attacking variably as last did Molly McCage two resp. three years ago for Stuttgart.

    Quote from StefanS

    Starting six Stuttgart in the first two sets: Rivers (Opp), Grozer+Mlejnková (OHs), Todorova+Rosenthal (middles), Kästner (setter), Koskelo (libero).

    Do you really think this will be the preferred starting six for Stuttgart? If it will be, I would be surprised with a few choices...

    First of all I'm happy to see Kästner back on court after her injury:) Setter position is wide open for me. Both setters are capable of playing a fast system, so they will either choose a more experienced setter or a talented younger setter.

    For me Grozer didn't contribute anything in yesterdays match... Not solid in serve reception and not able to kill a ball in attack. I don't know her that well, but I wouldn't start with her. It's clear Mlejnkova has to be one of the starting outside hitters. She is the most balanced outside hitter with good defense and offense. My pick for the outside hitter next to Mlejnkova would be Segura. She had a solid season last year in Italy and can contribute especially in attack. Jasper played pretty good yesterday and showed what she is capable of, namely stabilize the service reception and make sure that they can play in system.

    I would be the most surprised if Rosenthal would be a starter over Lohuis this season. Rosenthal didn't contribute anything last year and Lohuis had a okay season. For me Lohuis clearly is the better middel blocker out of those two.

    Quote from Let's go orange

    Do you really think this will be the preferred starting six for Stuttgart? If it will be, I would be surprised with a few choices...

    First of all I'm happy to see Kästner back on court after her injury:) Setter position is wide open for me. Both setters are capable of playing a fast system, so they will either choose a more experienced setter or a talented younger setter.

    For me Grozer didn't contribute anything in yesterdays match... Not solid in serve reception and not able to kill a ball in attack. I don't know her that well, but I wouldn't start with her. It's clear Mlejnkova has to be one of the starting outside hitters. She is the most balanced outside hitter with good defense and offense. My pick for the outside hitter next to Mlejnkova would be Segura. She had a solid season last year in Italy and can contribute especially in attack. Jasper played pretty good yesterday and showed what she is capable of, namely stabilize the service reception and make sure that they can play in system.

    I would be the most surprised if Rosenthal would be a starter over Lohuis this season. Rosenthal didn't contribute anything last year and Lohuis had a okay season. For me Lohuis clearly is the better middel blocker out of those two.

    For me setter is the only question mark in starting six, Rivers-Segura-Mlejnkova-Lohuis-Todorova are pretty safe. But Hester Jasper made a really good impression yesterday :thumbup: If she can do that also against stronger opponents she might challenge Segura/Mlejnkova for one of the spots. I was disappointed by Grozer, she didn't look any better than before she went to Swiss league...

    Another friendly match for Stuttgart. Now against Mulhouse.


    https://www.facebook.com/mulho…/videos/2679286095507525/

    Quote from Matthias

    Wiesbaden's Julia Wenzel will miss the season due to a serious knee injury :( The club is looking for a replacement now.

    I fear, that she will never return to professional volleyball, because this is one of those horrible threefold injuries in the knee, to be honest.

    Regarding spectators in the halls: after a federal/states decision yesterday all Germany wide professional sports events will have complete ban of fans until end of October at least - while for some friendlies Stuttgart could get permission before for 500 people in total admission on 12. September, it is not clear, if this will still happen - are these few hundreds still acceptable or not? Current regulation allows up to 500 with full personal tracking of people at the location. Supercup will be also played without or at most a few hundred in Margon hall therefore.

    The VBL insists on playing with spectators (see most recent news on volleyball-bundesliga.de) and depending of the respective state up to 500 or 1.000 people in total in the hall, valid until end of October. The final decision will be made by the state governments...